The bands are back

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Sunday, August 22, 2010

NORWALK

By DANIELLE CAPALBO

Hour Staff Writer

The bands are back in town.

About 250 students returned last week to the halls and surrounds of Norwalk High School and Brien McMahon High School. Toting flags, brass, drumsticks and mallets, they are the musicians and color guard members of the Marching Bears and the Senators, respectively. Before school even begins, they will have completed two rigorous weeks of day-long rehearsals in preparation for their season.

"These kids are working really hard," said Chris Rivera, the new director of the Norwalk High School Band.

"I can tell they don't want to let up."

Both band camps run from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday. Students take hour-long breaks for lunch and dinner, but otherwise, camp is a disciplined, unflagging pursuit of perfection. After all, both bands will debut their shows -- "Journey of the Seasons " for Brien McMahon and "New Era: A Journey in Three Parts " for Norwalk High -- on Sept. 4 at a drum corps show at Central High School in Bridgeport.

It's the fifth year that Norwalk High has been selected to perform at the non-competitive regional exhibition, Rivera said. For the Senators, it's a first.

"Things have changed a bit this year," said Band Director Ron Secchi. "In the past, we've had camp, then about a month before our first performance."

He added: "This is good, though. We've already set a goal and a pace."

On a patch of grass outside the band room at Brien McMahon, five bass drum players worked and reworked a section of the band's seven-and-a-half-minute show.

"We're the most well-prepared we've been in years," said 17-year-old Joseph Parenteau, a rising senior. "We're weeks ahead of schedule. We run through the same parts over and over, get the heavy stuff out of the way before school starts and there's more to do."

"Journey of the Seasons " is a three-part performance based on the movie "Journey of Man," by Cirque du Soleil, Secchi said.

"Part 1 is fall, Part 2 is a ballad -- our winter -- and Part 3 combines spring and summer," he said. "There is some repetition throughout the music, and we feel that represents the transition from season to season. Weve obviously had warm falls and cool summers."

Rivera said the eight-and-a-half-minute show at Norwalk High School will depart from traditional performances. Called "New Era: A Journey in Three Parts," it is comprised of the songs "Blue Shades," "Vide Cor Meum " and "Ride " and will be "fast, intense and demanding," Rivera said.

"You have to keep your mind set on perfection," said 15-year-old Ryan Page, a tenor sax player. "Judges will take off tenths or fifths of a point. Or theyll give a tenth of a point, for that matter. If you do one thing a little bit better than the other band, you win."

He added: "Everyone here is proud of what we do."

The show is a nod, as well, to a new landscape for the Marching Bears. New players, for instance, and, of course, Rivera himself. He took the reins this year for long-time, legendary Director Jeff Smith, who retired.

"I do feel some pressure, and I think its because I know Jeff and I was one of his students," Rivera said. "As for my goal. It's never to win, it's to be as close to perfect as we can be. Personally, my goal is to have Jeff say he's proud of what we did."

Secchi's goals are manifold, too.

"We want to continue to maintain a high level of student involvement, to teach kids self-discipline, respect," he said. "We want them to learn about routine, order and structure. And of course, there's the music."